subject: Past Year Tax - Some FAQs for Doing Past Year Taxes [print this page] In order to get caught up with the tax returns which you had missed in previous years, you will need to get current by submitting past year tax returns.
This is essentially obtaining the particular old tax forms, gathering all the information and preparing it as you would have done it.
It is definitely important that you get these done in time especially if you forsee financial changes in your life. A new house is a good example. If you want a mortgage loan or a business loan,a tax return will be one of the crucial documents which is used by
the financial institution to evaluate you.
One question that gets usually inquired is "Can I receive a refund for a past year if I file the past year tax return right now ?"
The answer is "It depends !"..
The tax return has to be sent in within 3 years of its due date to receive a refund if due.
This is what is called the statute of limitations for tax refunds. Once the three years are over, your refund is forfeited.
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For example in the event that you did not file your tax return for 2008 which was initially due on April 15th 2009, you could still file that 2008 tax return by April 15th 2011 and still get a refund in case it was due to you.
Why people neglect to file tax returns in time ?
Our experience reveals that when someone thinks that they owe money to the Irs, they stear clear from submitting their tax returns. Personal problems are the common reason. Imagine someone going through a hard divorce, a death inside the family, or perhaps some other personal misfortune. Doing the tax return is probably last on their heads. Frequently people get up to date on their taxes in a year or two, but not always. There tend to be instances where tax returns haven't been filed for years and years.
Can you E File the past year tax return ?
The simple answer is NO.
The IRS needs you to manually send the tax return. Bear in mind the distinction between online filing and e-filing. When you prepare your tax return using an on-line tax web site - you are basically doing an online tax filing.
What is the distinction between on-line filing and E-filing ?
When a tax software company allows users to access the software online over the web, its called online
tax preparation and filing.
With an e-file, however, the information contained on your tax return is delivered to the
IRS in an electronic format and you do not need to mail in your tax return. e-file is an IRS sytem.
So in fact even an online tax site will use the e-file system to transmit the return to te IRS.
But bear in mind for past years tax returns, IRS does not allow e-filing, so regardless
of how you prepare that return, you will still need to mail it .
What tax forms do you need to to file a past year tax return ?
You would need the actual tax forms from the previous year to prepare the tax return. These are
available on the IRS site.
Is there software available which will do a past year tax return ?
For most people, you are stuck with using an older version of tax software. That is if you can find it. You will be lucky to find
this software, because most software manufacturers only support their software program
for a specific number of years. It is not cost-effective for their company to support software for which
there are very few customers.
Here are a few online tax suppliers that do offer past year tax filing online on its web site.
Past Year Tax - Some FAQs for Doing Past Year Taxes
By: R Robson
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